Genesis 30:1-6
1When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I’ll die!”
2 Jacob became angry with her and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?”
3 Then she said, “Here is Bilhah, my servant. Sleep with her so that she can bear children for me and I too can build a family through her.”
4 So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife. Jacob slept with her, 5 and she became pregnant and bore him a son. 6 Then Rachel said, “God has vindicated me; he has listened to my plea and given me a son.” Because of this she named him Dan.[a]
Reflection
Throughout this week we will look at four different genres in Scripture. Today we will look at the most abundant genre, historical narrative. The purpose of this type of literature is to narrate or to put it plainly to tell a story. On the surface our scripture today is odd. The key to this scripture is knowing that it was included to tell the story of Jacob’s life and not to invite us into his sinfulness. This is why understanding the author, context, genre, and purpose of a scripture is important to
interpreting it. In what ways do you think understanding these principals helps us interpret scripture?
